In January, I taught my 10th graders about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. (If you haven’t read about it, check it out. It’s kind of important for understanding why I am so thrilled right now.) At the end of the month, I wasn’t really sure if they had gotten anything out of the lessons, as about half of the students stare at me blankly while I speak and a quarter of them seem to despise my very existence and everything I try to teach them. That leaves a potential 6.75 pupils that possibly understood the lesson and were polite enough to not sneer at my enthusiastic teaching.
Their final assignment, after watching the “I have a dream” speech, was to write a composition that answered these questions: What was King’s dream? In your opinion, did his dream die when he was killed?
At the end of the month, I went to Chernigov for a week and my counterpart was the one to collect and grade their essays. In typical fashion, most of the students didn’t even write anything. Two months later, while grading this week’s assignment, I found a composition written by one of the top students in the class. Here is an excerpt:
“I think that the name and work of MLK Jr. continued after his death. This is indicated by the fact that after his death the power of segregation and discrimination has declined. Now, America has a black president – Obama. Does it isn’t mean that the King case was completed? He died not vainly. He put the end to racial injustice, he defended his nation from oppression. Now America – really free country; country for everybody. He stayed in America’s history as a liberator.”
I am so proud.
Indeed.
You have such gift for inspiring. God has blessed you with your ability to speak and write.